European Copyright Roundtable to Ensure Uniform Implementation of Directives 26/06/2019 by Tom Hirche

The new EU Copyright Directive entered into force on 6 June 2019. From that date on, Member States will have exactly two years to transpose all requirements into their national law. A roundtable will help to curb legislative solo attempts.

The text of the Directive as it stands now cannot be altered. However, this does not change the fact that some Member States are still dissatisfied with it and consider certain regulations to be wrong. Additionally, many provisions are vaguely phrased. This carries the risk of fragmentation as a result of national solo approaches to implementation. The goal of an EU-wide digital single market would thus be missed by far.

Many discussions will be necessary to prevent this from happening. A constructive exchange between legislators, scientists, civil rights activists and affected companies must take place. The European Copyright Roundtable wants to provide an independent forum for this.

This workshop is organised by Prof. Martin Husovec (Tilburg University) and Prof. Martin Kretschmer (University of Glasgow). In the presence of individual government representatives, academics will discuss concrete implementation issues of the Directive with stakeholders. A first roundtable on Article 17 (previously Article 13) has already taken place and can be rewatched on their YouTube channel. For the future, further such constructive meetings are planned – and necessary.